Of Red Ribbons And Dango
by Forsaken Paradise
Summary: It was an accident, really. Two separate paths colliding where they shouldn't have crossed, tangling the strings of fate and altering the course of history. It never should have happened, yet it did. Promises were made, hearts were broken. . . and it all started with a red ribbon and a plate of dango. ItaSaku with hints of SasuSaku.
1. Prologue

**A/N**

**Grace: Hello everybody! I'm so excited to finally post something on my new account, even if it's an overly-dramatic prologue. ItaSaku has to be at least a little dramatic, ne? Anyway, though I've set the rating to M, I'm not entirely sure why just yet. There'll certainly be a fair bit of violence and the language isn't exactly PG material, but I have yet to decide if there's going to be any smut. On the one hand, a fair few of the ItaSaku fics seem to be lemons, so a change of pace might be nice for you readers. On the other hand, I'm not sure if their interactions would flow as well if I have the looming problem of trying to write it all with kid gloves, so to speak. I guess it'll be up to you guys, let me know what you'd like to be in here and I'll see if I can make it work.**

**In other business, I'm sorry to everyone who was hoping that this would be a re-written first chapter of Still Doll or All Is Fair, but I promise that I AM working on them, it's just slow going for me. Also, I've been toying with this whole story for a while now, and cabbage patch (by paws-bells) really got my plot bunnies rolling. I absolutely ADORE ItaSaku, and I love the premise of them knowing each other as children, but I also love the drama of the whole Uchiha Massacre as well as a bit of SasuSaku tension for good measure. I suppose that I should mention that this is just the prologue, and the rest of the story will be covering everything from the day Itachi and Sakura met up to the point that I cut this chapter off. As to whether or not I'm going to actually kill off Itachi as I've seen many – most, even – ItaSaku writers do, I'm not entirely sure yet. The drama from it all – can you tell I love writing drama? – would certainly be fun, but I really do love Itachi more than any other anime character, even more than Sasori and Hei, which is really saying something. Anyway, thanks goes out to my awesome Beta, PhantomPrussia, who puts up with my shit, and you guys' opinions would be greatly appreciated. :)**

**Phantom: Now to FINALLY start the chapter *lifts curtain dramatically***

**Grace: *rolls eyes***

**(A quick note to all of you guys who are wondering about Impulse: Yes, I AM going to change it from a oneshot to a multi-chap fic, but the updates will be sporadic and I have no idea when the next chapter will be out.)**

_**[DISCLAIMER: If I owned Naruto, ItaSaku would be canon and Itachi would have a shirtless scene every other episode. Given the lack of cannon ItaSaku and Itachi's unfortunate – for the fangirls – habit of wearing a shirt, I do not own it.]**_

**Prologue**

"Don't you dare close your eyes!" a sharp female voice screamed, startling a sleek black raven from it's perch amongst the shadowed branches of a tall pine tree.

Silence descended for several long minutes, broken only by the muffled sobs of a young woman. She knelt over a mangled body, ignoring the jagged stones from the broken wall digging into her knees. Bits of the structure she crouched within crumbled around her, what was once a proud testament to the power of the mighty Uchiha clan now reduced to little more than rubble and ash. Tears gleamed in the girl's eyes, emerald irises set aglow as her chakra flowed through the battered body. Blood was smeared across her face and clothing, her cherry blossom-colored hair pulled into a haphazard ponytail, and her hands were burned by her own chakra as she continued to force the energy into the man's form.

He was breathing in short, rasping gasps, each more ragged than the last. Charcoal eyes were narrowed to pained slits as blood flowed down his face and matted in his ebony hair. Wounds littered his body, crimson fluid seeping to the dusty ground even as the green energy rushed to repair his skin. He struggled to lift his arm in an attempt to push the girl away. She responded with a teary glare and a strangled sort of growl, face setting with determination.

In any other situation, the man would have smiled at the pink-haired girl's response. She had developed quite a temper over the years, and he was proud of her. Gone was the timid and bullied child that he'd found hiding behind a tree so long ago. Yes, Sakura had grown to be a strong and unyielding woman with a nearly unrivaled strength and power that she never would have dreamed to attain. Her continued presence was an ever-present reminder of the skills she had proudly mastered, and also of her too-kind heart. For so long he had worried over her, for there were far too many people in the world who would gladly take advantage of such a caring woman. Even now he found himself wishing that she had learned to walk away and let an enemy die. After all, he _was _the enemy, no matter how much he wished that it wasn't true. He had chosen his path, and this was the hill he would die on, if only the girl would let him die!

"Stop struggling, I'm not going anywhere and neither are you!" Sakura snapped as she pressed both hand's against the man's chest. Her tears had stopped now, and her instincts as a medic had taken over. The first rule that her Shishou had drilled into her mind seemed so simple, and for the longest time it had been. . . until now.

'_No personal feelings. No personal feelings. Don't let it affect your judgment. Don't- FUCK IT!' _her mind screamed as she pressed another wave of chakra into the body before her.

How long had she trained for this? The weeks and months had quickly blurred into years, and time had quickly lost its meaning in Sakura's mind. All that had mattered was getting stronger, working and studying until she dropped – the librarian was threatening to charge her rent if she fell asleep slumped over a table one more time. Yes, she had poured blood and sweat for so many years into a single goal, and now she had done it, she had found _him_. The moment was so very bitter sweet, a sickening mixture of those joyous memories from nearly two decades ago twisting with the horrible, gut-wrenching fear at seeing the broken and near-lifeless body of the man she sought out for so long. The ever-present feeling of betrayal had worked itself into the raging torrent of emotions, yet Sakura wasn't sure which Uchiha had truly betrayed her.

So many promises had been broken since that first day. . . so much heartache and pain. She was afraid to think of how many tears – _her _tears – had been shed throughout the whole ordeal. At one point she had made a vow to never cry over an Uchiha again, and for seven years she had kept that vow. For seven years she foolishly thought that it could have all been forgotten, that she could finally move on with her life. Sakura had watched all of her friends fall in love, marry, and settle down, yet she had remained alone. Contrary to what Ino had believed, she _wasn't _waiting for an Uchiha to come back and sweep her off her feet, reality was always to firm in her mind to even entertain such fantasies. The simple truth was that no man could ever live up to the image in her mind of who she would fall in love with, who she would marry. . . who she would settle down with.

_Love._

Yes, the word still left a bitter taste in her mouth. Twice she had confessed her love, both times at a young age – and ironically to brothers. It was a word that Sakura hadn't used since she was twelve years old, and she had planned to keep it that way until _he _showed up again. Already it was circling through her mind like a horrid mantra; _love, love, love._

A wet, hacking sort of cough pulled the woman from her thoughts and back to the bleeding man splayed across the rocky ground. He was a mess of cuts and bruises with dirt and blood caked across his skin, even his seemingly-perfect hair had become tangled in the fight. . . and yet he was still beautiful. The defined muscles, sharp jaw, and high cheekbones were still prominent even in his current state, yet what truly drew Sakura in was his eyes. Those eyes – even now a gentle grey color – brought back every happy moment, every little smile, and every warm feeling. Reading the eyes of an Uchiha was an art, and not an easy one to master, especially when one's subject was _him_, and yet Sakura could still catch a glimpse into his mind. He was definitely frustrated at her – not entirely surprising since it seemed as though he was determined to die and she was determined to make him live. There was also a glint of regret, though very fleeting, which left Sakura to puzzle over what he was regretting.

"You're going to get through this whether you like it or not." she whispered with a slight smile, ignoring the black spots dancing across her vision from chakra exertion.

"D-don't. . ." his voice was weak and pained, little more than a hiss, but she heard him just the same.

"There's no way I'm letting you get off this easy, Uchiha." Sakura said with a smile. It was a feeble effort to lighten the mood and they both knew it.

Anything he may have tried to say was cut off by another body-wracking cough that sent a spatter of blood across the ground, a few flecks catching Sakura's cheek. She knew he was horribly, _deathly _ill, and had been for a long time. Frustration quickly set in as the man's body shook with another coughing spasm, sending blood pooling into his lungs faster than she could hope to heal. It was a losing battle, and Sakura was painfully aware of it. Her chakra reserves were dangerously low, a fact brought painfully to her attention as the world seemed to tilt and spin. She didn't have the supplies to patch up the rest of his wounds, and there was still a horrible, jagged gash down his chest. The internal damage was probably something beyond her repair with proper facilities and all of her chakra combined, there was little to no hope the way things currently were.

Bitter, angry tears pricked at her eyes once more. There was nothing – _nothing_ – that Sakura Haruno hated more than feeling helpless, and not once had she felt so very helpless. She had promised herself to become strong, so that she would never feel loss or pain again, so that nothing would be beyond her control. Now it seemed that everything had been so very pointless. The man who had given her encouragement, confidence, and hope. The man who had saved her life on more than one occasion. The man who had been a parent, a brother, and a friend. . . the man she _loved_ was bleeding out beneath her hands, and nothing she could do would stop it. When it all came down to the wire, Sakura had found herself more helpless than the day he had found her.

She could feel his erratic heartbeat begin to slow beneath her hands. No more coughs or gasps left his mouth, nor a single breath. Pale lids and blood-matted lashed slid shut on soft charcoal eyes. His grip on her wrist went completely limp as his hand fell to the crimson-stained dirt. But she could still feel his heartbeat, he still had a pulse.

_Thump-thump._

_Thump-thump._

_Thump. . . thump._

_Th-_

It stopped.

"_Itachi!"_


	2. Chapter One: The Sakura Tree

**A/N**

**Grace: What's this? I got a chapter out on time? *gasps dramatically***

**Phantom: Absolutely mind-blowing. **

**Grace: Yes, yes indeed. Anywho, I'd like to thank all of my amazing reviewers **_angel897_**, **_like. 56_**, and the unnamed guest. You guys are awesome and get Itachi hugs!**

**Itachi: I agreed to no such arrangement.**

**Phantom: *rolls eyes* starting the chapter now.**

_**[DISCLAIMER: If I owned Naruto, Shisui and all of his awesomeness would have a much larger part in the anime. Given the lack of Shisui – and all of his awesomeness – I do not own it.]**_

**Chapter One: The Sakura Tree**

_Spring, Five Years Pre-Massacre_

Itachi Uchiha was not a very complicated person, contrary to what everyone seemed to think. Even at eight years of age he was saddled with more responsibilities than he quite knew what to do with, and had been ever since his graduation from the academy two years prior. With the near-constant flow of missions as well as his burdens as heir of the Uchiha Clan, Itachi rarely had free time. With the help of his mother, the boy had managed to sneak out of the clan meeting scheduled to take up the entirety of the afternoon and most of the evening, and soon found himself strolling down the quiet street near a park with a plate of dango in his hand.

It was still early in the afternoon, so though the park was full of children still too young for the academy, most of the academy students were otherwise occupied and nearly all of the Genin were out on missions, so the training grounds in the forest near the park would be empty. Ignoring the cheerful shouts and laughter from the few children running around the playground equipment, Itachi found himself walking down the path toward the training grounds. Really, he had no intention of training – at least not before he finished his dango – but the prospect of a quiet place to simply sit without being disturbed was too enticing to ignore.

Training ground three. It was a rather small and unassuming spot, Itachi mused. Most ninja disregarded the space all together, and as a result it had become rather over grown. Tall oak trees lined the perimeter of the rectangular area, their roots exposed and stretching up to catch the foot of any inattentive passerby. Bushes and bits of foliage covered nearly the entirety of training ground three, save for the very center where the greenery had been stomped down from use, and two square feet of space under a large and shady sakura tree that Itachi had cleared out by hand. Beneath that sakura tree was the young boy's favorite place to sit and relax – more than once he'd fallen asleep beneath the pink-dotted branches.

Today, however, Itachi was not alone. Crouched in the boy's favorite place for resting and thinking, was the small, trembling form of a child.

Her – or at least Itachi _assumed _it was a her – small body was shaking with the force of her muffled sobs as she pressed her hands over her mouth. Itachi blinked several times and shook his head firmly, believing that the child must have been some odd figment of his imagination. Who in the world had _pink _hair? Not only were her shoulder-length locks pink, but the _exact _shade of pink that colored the sakura petals falling lightly in the gentle breeze. While Itachi had never hallucinated before – at least not that he was aware of – it wasn't impossible that he'd eaten some bad dango; that notion seemed more likely than the _pink_ haired girl sitting in his favorite spot being any more than an illusion of some sort.

"Oh!" the girl exclaimed as she finally caught sight of Itachi "S-sorry!"

She blinked several times at the older boy with wide, wet green eyes before wiping her face quickly and scrambling to her feet. Several bluish-purple bruises were blossoming across her skin, and a rather painful cut marred her right hand from her feeble attempt to grab at the jagged bark of a tree to keep herself from falling. Dirt, twigs, and leaves were tangled into the girl's oddly colored hair, and mud was smeared across her rather torn clothes. A scab had begun to form on her split lower lip, only to tear open when she gnawed anxiously on said-lip.

The child looked like hell.

"Are you alright?" Itachi asked quietly, brotherly instincts kicking in as he realized that the girl had to be around Sasuke's age.

"Y-yes!" the girl squeaked, face coloring with embarrassment "I j-just. . .uh. . . I tripped!"

Her feet shuffled uncomfortably, drawing Itachi's gaze to her skinned and bloodied knees. He raised an eyebrow and stared the girl in the eye.

"Uh. . ." she twitched anxiously under the Uchiha's scrutinizing glare "I tripped down a hill! And. . . uh. . . fell into some bushes and stuff!"

Really, her childish attempt at lying left Itachi rather amused. More than once Sasuke had come home worse for wear, clearly having been in – and lost – a fight. The boy always refused to admit his failure, instead making very feeble excuses for his state. Itachi had a sneaking suspicion that the girl's situation was similar, though – he noted with a small spark of pride for his younger sibling – Sasuke had never arrived home in such a sorry state as the pink haired girl before him.

"Hn." Itachi hummed, regarding the girl with passive grey eyes.

"I must be in your way. . . Sorry, I'll go now." the girl nearly tripped over her own words as she spoke, rushing so quickly through the sentence that Itachi nearly missed it.

She paused a moment longer, as though waiting for Itachi to give her a reason to stay a moment longer. Her eyes stared hopefully at the Uchiha boy, a desperation gleaming within their gleaming jade depths that Itachi couldn't quite fathom. Perhaps she was simply lonely? Yes, he certainly knew _that _particular feeling all too well. Sasuke was the only person who sought to spend time with Itachi, and he never even began to talk about his inner most feelings with anyone, not even his mother. After all, a good Shinobi was a master at hiding and ignoring their emotions, and Itachi Uchiha was nothing if not a good Shinobi.

As the petal-haired child lowered her head dejectedly and began to shuffle off, wincing at the pain that came from moving her damaged knees, Itachi felt a pang of guilt. While no one had been there for him when he had bloodied himself from too rigorous a training session, the Uchiha boy always went out of his way to help little Sasuke when he had wounded himself one way or another. The strange little girl with her too-large eyes and strange hair had managed to remind Itachi of his beloved brother, and he couldn't bring himself to sit idly while she suffered.

With an inward sigh, Itachi turned toward the limping child and called out softly to her.

"Wait a moment."

Hope gleamed once more in the girl's eyes as she tentatively turned, jaggedly-cropped hair falling across her bruised face. Itachi said nothing more, instead taking several slow steps forward and setting a gentle hand on the child's shoulder to guide her back to the shade of the tree. She stared up at the older boy with wonder, mouth opening slightly to form a question, only to close once more. It amused Itachi that she seemed rather befuddled by his actions as he helped her sit against the smooth bark of the sakura tree and pulled a roll of bandages from his pouch.

Given his habit of training at every opportunity, Itachi had taken to carrying bandages and other bits of medical supplies since he was four years old; about the same age as the little pink-haired girl, he noted idly. She didn't say a word as Itachi carefully cleaned her wounds with an antiseptic wipe – something he'd learned was just as important as bandages, there was hardly any point in patching up an infected wound – before wrapping soft white gauze around her knees and hand.

Once the girl's wounds were satisfactorily disinfected and bound, Itachi settled himself against the trunk of the tree and picked up his forgotten plate of dango. He stared at the treat for a moment before delicately lifting one of the sticks and offering it silently to the girl, whose face brightened in excitement as she gave him an enthusiastic thanking and munched joyously on the treat. It amused Itachi that the girl seemed to enjoy dango nearly so much as himself, which was no small feat.

"What is your name?" Itachi inquired softly as he twirled a cleaned dango stick between his fingers, watching the girl from the corner of his eye. She was as messy an eater as Sasuke, and had managed to cover both her face and hands with the sweet dango sauce before setting to work licking the stuff away like a cat; the sight nearly made Itachi laugh aloud.

"Sakura!" the girl supplied cheerfully, pausing in her finger-licking to flash a smile at the Uchiha boy "What's yours?"

"Itachi." came the quiet reply.

Sakura was a rather fitting name for the girl, Itachi mused, though upon closer inspection he realized that her hair wasn't quite the same shade as the sakura petals, it was just a touch lighter. She seemed surprisingly cheerful, especially given her injuries, and the similarities between her and Sasuke were actually much stronger than Itachi would have suspected. He wondered absently if the pink-haired child knew his younger brother.

That night, as Itachi settled tiredly onto his bed, one Sakura Haruno found herself thinking about the quiet boy she'd met in the park. He was so nice to her, she recalled with a reflexive smile, perhaps she would run into him again. Not many people went out of their way to be kind to Sakura. She wasn't particularly pretty or fast. She didn't know any interesting games or important people. She didn't have any special toys or an extra-large house . . . really, she didn't have much of anything that a child would put much stock into. And yet, one person had been deliberately nice to her that day, and that was something that little Sakura would cherish for a long, long time.

Neither of those two children could have fathomed the effect their accidental meeting would have on the world, not even the genius of the Uchiha clan. Even as Itachi stared at the ceiling, running over the events of the day in his mind and staring at the small red ribbon tied loosely around his wrist – a present for sharing his dango, the little girl had said – he couldn't have known what would transpire in the years ahead. He didn't know that he would befriend the odd pink-haired child, that they would become close in a way that only two broken people can, and that he would one day fall in love with her, and she would fall in love with him.

They didn't know that their bond would result in heartache, blood, and tears until one of them died in the most painful of ways. Neither would have suspected that little Sasuke would be drawn into their dangerous storm of emotions, or that the unsuspecting boy would lose more than just his heart and mind because of them. One day in the not-so-distant future, they would become sworn enemies, both bound by duty and honor to slay the other. In the shinobi world, love was such a brutally dangerous thing, and just as unavoidable as it was destructive.

But for now, Itachi and Sakura were blissfully ignorant of the twisted fate that lay before them. For now, they were simply two children who met under a sakura tree.

**A/N**

**Grace: Yeah. Not so very happy with this chapter, especially since I ended up having to cut out the scene with the ribbon – hence the title – due to time limitations, but hopefully I'll be able to squish it in at a later point, probably via flashback. This is Naruto, after all, you can't have Naruto without flashbacks.**

**Phantom: Nice save Miss Lazy Author.**

**Grace: Shush, you're just a Beta.**

**Phantom: An AWESOME Beta who deserves love and cookies for her hard work.**

**Grace: Yeah. . . sure. Review people! It motivates me to get off my lazy rear!**

**[Side note for all of you guys who're wondering about Impulse:**

**Yes, I promise that I AM going to add another chapter, possibly another ten or twenty. It's slow going, however, because Impulse was never really intended to be anything more than a one-shot. Hell, it was never supposed to be anything more than a quick ItaSaku snipped that I stuck on Tumblr because of a bit of fan art that got my muses going. It's astounding to me – as an essentially nobody fanfiction writer – that Impulse got such a flurry of reviews, follows, and favorites. Honestly I never thought that it would get more than a review or two if I was lucky, so much attention was unexpected and more than a bit mind-blowing for me. Anywho, I really am working on the next chapter, so thanks to all of you guys for your patience, perhaps with a bit of luck I can get Impulse on a regular update schedule like this fic.**

**~Grace]**


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